Heading:
Author: Hondius, Henricus
Title: America Septentrionalis
Place Published: Amsterdam
Publisher:
Date Published: 1636-[1639]
Description:

Copper-engraved map, lightly hand-tinted in outline & wash (apparently later), with 2 cartouches. 46.8x55.5 cm. (18½x21¾"), neatly hinged into matte. First state.

North America, with California an island, the continent inhabited by numerous vignettes of animals, sailing ships and a few monsters in the oceans. Burden calls it a "beautifully engraved map" that had "greater influence than any other to date in perpetuating the theory of California as an island... Cartographically the map is a careful composition of many different sources and illustrates well the current state of knowledge. The depiction and nomenclature of the west, along with that of the insular California, derive directly from Henry Briggs' The North Part of America, 1635. A legend placed strategically over the north-west coastline offers the opportunity to discontinue a coastline least understood. An unnamed lake still feeds a Rio del Norto flowing incorrectly south-west into what should be the headwaters of the Gulf of California. On the east bank of this river is Real de Nueua Mexico, or Santa Fe..." This is the first state of the map, a 1639 issue, with no imprint in the cartouche at lower left, French text on verso, and signature mark Cccc on the verso. Burden 245; Koeman Vol. II, p.397, no. 486; Leighly 13; McLaughlin 6; Tooley p.113; Wheat Transmississippi 45 (1640 issue).

Text on verso faintly visible through the map; very good or better condition, quite attractive.